the free Tramlines event ponders its future

The organisers of the FREE Tramlines festival which happens annually each year at various venues throughout Sheffield, have issued a statement which hints that this summer's event may have to be ticketed as costs rise, and revenue streams dry up.

Started in 2010 Tramlines key goal was to give festival-goers a chance to see established artists alongside up and coming acts, across multiple outdoor stages and over 70 venues for free.

Acts who played last year included Roots Manuva, Ms Dynamite, Chew Lips, Charli XCX, Clock Opera, We Are Scientists, Field Music, Frankie & The Heartstrings, Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny, Future Of The Left, The Destroyers, Eugene McGuinness, Mark Morriss, Esben & The Witch, Mazes, Frankie Rose, 65daysofstatic, and many more, and attracts over 150,000 music fans to Sheffield across three days.

A statement, on the festival's website, (here) reveals the organisers are still in the process of making plans for 2013′s event and haven't made any firm decisions, but it looks likely the event will no longer be free.

The statement in full says:

"As you may have noticed in the press, the current debate surrounding Sheffield City Council's imminent cuts has involved Tramlines Festival and has brought up the topic of whether or not the festival should be paying-entry or free going forward. While we're still in the process of making plans for 2013′s event and haven't made any firm decisions, we've been impressed by the level of interest in the subject, and felt that the time was right to keep fans of the festival in the loop about where we're up to.

As it stands, it's highly likely that we will be charging for 2013's festival in some form, although we want to make it clear that the Council's cuts are far from the only factor involved in this decision.

In 2009, the cost of running Tramlines stood at £200,000. By last year, this figure had risen to £390,000, with the higher costs driven mainly by catering for the ever-increasing numbers of festival-goers coming to the event. In the first year, Sheffield city centre welcomed 35,000 people on Tramlines' Saturday event. By last year, this had grown to 90,000 people. Two outdoor stages became six to accommodate the extra attendees and the costs of running a safe, clean event went up with it.

Funding a free festival is a complex model, particularly in the current environment. We have traditionally had four sources of income:

• A grant from Sheffield City Council


• Sponsorship revenue


• Income from the food and drink units in the stage areas


• Contributions from the venues themselves who pay for their line-ups and the security associated with opening their venues

Next year, we expect all of the first three revenue streams to decrease significantly.

We have been very lucky to enjoy sponsorship from Nokia for the past two years, which has helped build the event and allowed us to put on great shows like Heaven 17 and Reverend and the Makers. It has also made a significant contribution to the running of the festival. We are awaiting a final decision from Nokia but, with the shifting economic climate, we are not expecting them to return in 2013, leaving a significant gap in the festival's finances.

Every year, we have charged retailers more for the food and drink concessions on the stages to contribute to our increasing costs. However, we have reached saturation point from this source of revenue and, in the case of the food units, we are expecting a decrease in income next year to respond to our food retailers' universal feedback that the food rents were too high.

Finally, there are the Council's cuts, which we've been expecting for some time. We would like to stress that the decision to charge is not simply down to how much the council will or won't put into the event. Putting on a party for 100,000 people isn't cheap and even without a cut in the council budget next year, we would have probably had to make this decision. Sheffield City Council have been a fantastic ally in building this event and we have nothing but praise for them in what are extremely difficult circumstances.

From the day Tramlines started, we have been working on building a model which can be self-sustaining. Since 2010, every area we have added to the festival has been added on a break-even basis and, where possible, we've encouraged these additional areas to be taken on by external promoters and event organisers from around the city. The Folk Forest, Tudor Square and Weston Park are all run by independent promoters who absorb the financial risk on their own events. We stopped contributing to the cost of venue line-ups in 2011 and have continued to run the event on a shoestring.

In the meantime, we trialled a number of voluntary donation schemes as a means of raising additional revenue, including a 'text to donate scheme' in 2010, collection buckets in 2011 and selling programmes and apps in 2012. None of the schemes have come anywhere near raising the sort of revenue required to keep the event going and so, reluctantly, we are now looking at how to charge for some elements of Tramlines.

The details are still far from finalised, but one model which we're currently looking at is that of a wristband scheme, which would entitle festival-goers to entry to a number of Tramlines' core music events, at a price of no more than £5 per day. Alongside this, we would look to ensure that a significant portion of the festival remained free-entry.

We still have a way to go on the detail and planning, and will have proper news in a month or so, but we can definitely state that, if we do charge, the ticket-price is not going to be extortionate, that we will work very hard to keep the free element of the festival alive and that we will let you know more as soon as we do.

We will keep you posted."

eFestivals will bring you news of any developments, and let you know when a final decision is made.

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